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Metallic Monolith Pops up Outside Pittsburgh Candy Store

A monolith stands on a Stadium Park hillside in Atascadero, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2020. (AP)
A monolith stands on a Stadium Park hillside in Atascadero, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2020. (AP)
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Metallic Monolith Pops up Outside Pittsburgh Candy Store

A monolith stands on a Stadium Park hillside in Atascadero, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2020. (AP)
A monolith stands on a Stadium Park hillside in Atascadero, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2020. (AP)

Since mid-November, shining metal monoliths have suddenly appeared - and then vanished - in the strangest locations, from the Utah desert to a Romanian mountainside.

Now one has popped up outside a Pittsburgh candy store.

Capitalizing on the intrigue surrounding the other monoliths and hoping to provide a distraction from the daily drumbeat of COVID-19 news, the owner of Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop, Christopher Beers, commissioned a 10-foot tall, 24-inch wide triangle of plywood covered in sheet metal.

"There is a mystery behind it," said Beers, even though he stripped the whodunit angle from his monolith, which he freely admits was designed to drive up candy sales.

Beers said he was captivated by sculptures that made headlines starting in November, the first appearing in Utah's Red Rock Country, vaguely resembling the so-called monoliths in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey."

He enlisted a colleague to erect a similar enigma outside his store. One Facebook post was all it took to generate a media buzz around the "mysterious" metallic creation.

"Hopefully, it's a reminder to support small, local businesses that have been so badly hit" by COVID-19, said Beers, owner of the independent chain of 10 candy stores in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

"And isn't it fun to have something to talk about beside the pandemic?!"

Since the monolith went up, business has been brisk at Grandpa Joe's. Customers eagerly take selfies with the monolith before heading inside to load up on Christmas sweets. The Facebook post is also driving candy sales online.

"Come see the Monolith before it mysteriously disappears," said a post on a Facebook page for Grandpa Joe's.

"Is it made out of chocolate?" commented one hopeful fan on the page.

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Rare Pudu Birth in Argentina Sparks Conservation Hopes for Tiny Enigmatic Deer

A rare pudu fawn named Lenga, born earlier this month, is seen at the Temaiken Foundation, in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 22, 2024. (Reuters)
A rare pudu fawn named Lenga, born earlier this month, is seen at the Temaiken Foundation, in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 22, 2024. (Reuters)
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Rare Pudu Birth in Argentina Sparks Conservation Hopes for Tiny Enigmatic Deer

A rare pudu fawn named Lenga, born earlier this month, is seen at the Temaiken Foundation, in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 22, 2024. (Reuters)
A rare pudu fawn named Lenga, born earlier this month, is seen at the Temaiken Foundation, in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 22, 2024. (Reuters)

A rare pudu fawn was born in a biopark in Argentina earlier this month, giving scientists and conservationists a unique chance to study and collect data on the tiny enigmatic deer.

Weighing just 1.21 kg (2.7 lbs), the delicate, fragile and white-spotted male pudu fawn was named Lenga after a tree species endemic to the Andean Patagonian forest of Chile and Argentina.

"It's a very enigmatic animal, it's not easy to see," said Maximiliano Krause, Lenga's caretaker at the Temaiken Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to conserving wild species.

Pudus are one of the smallest deer species in the world, growing up to 50-cm (20-inches) tall and weighing up to 12 kg (26.5 lbs).

At just a fraction of that weight, Krause says Lenga is spending his days exploring the park with his mother Chalten and father Nicolino. Lenga is breastfeeding for the first two months until he can handle a herbivorous diet.

After that, Lenga will lose his white spots that help fawns camouflage themselves in their environment. Krause says the mottled color helps the tiny baby deer hide from both daytime and nighttime predators. At about one year, pudus develop antlers and reach up to 10 cm (4 inches).

Pudus are very elusive animals and flee in zig-zags when chased by predators. The tiny deer also face threats from wild dogs and species introduced into southern Argentina and Chile. Only about 10,000 pudus remain and are classified as near-threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

"This pudu birth is obviously a joy for us," said Cristian Guillet, director of zoological operations at the Temaiken Foundation.

Guillet said that Lenga will help them research and gather data that will help conservation efforts for pudus and other Patagonian deer, like the huemul.

"(This) offers hope of saving them from extinction," Guillet said.